F1
"blah... are the result of BMW's experiences in the F1 racing world."
So this is expected to be a fifth or even seventh-rate car then?
Remind me please, exactly how many F1 races have been won by a BMW ?
BMW has released details of its Vision Efficient Dynamics plug-in hybrid concept vehicle, ahead of the car’s official unveiling at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show. Designed to provide the performance of an M3 and the economy of a diesel Mini, Vision is powered by a hybrid power-train consisting of a 1.5l, three-cylinder …
"The vehicle’s light 3069lbs (1395kg) weight is largely due to use of an all-aluminium chassis and polycarbonate body panels"
Amazing how anyone can think this is light.
The original 1959 mini weighed around 600kg
The early Ford Escorts were around 750kg
Even the 240mph Mclaren F1 from 1992 was only 1100kg
Any car that weighs much more than a tonne cannot be described as light!
I'm from the younger generation of folk who work in the overall misnomer "IT field."
Couple of years ago I had a diesel yaris, 1.4L, surprisingly good and economical, I was surprised by what modern smaller cars can put out there in terms of power. Yes, it's a city car, fair enough.
But this thing may look amazing, but it will cost a lot more to produce, even in a mass market, than BMW will ever let on, and the MPG is hardly breath-taking. It does 5MPG more (to the euro standard, remember) than a good small diesel car, and of a car in the same class...maybe what, 15 MPG more?
It's a step in the right direction, but why can't we ditch this nuclear power plug in car nonsense, and simply intensify efforts into efficient hydrogen collection for usage in developing vehicles?
If you do a deep internet search, you can find that the percentage of money going on electric cars compared to hydrogen cars by the large automobile manufacturers leans heavily in the electric car's favour. I only suspect that the concentration of manufacturers on electric cars is do to do with how the big oil companies are starting to position themselves, as they edge towards electricity creation, and not supplying diesel or petrol anymore to vehicle consumers.
Since when has 1400kg been light? That is twice the weight of a spitfire / midget / original mini / sprite etc.
Do what they have done and acheive a weight substancially less than 1 ton and I'll be impressed.
Plus - if they have taken everything they learnt from F1 and used it for aerodynamics it won't be very slippy. Considering in the last couple of races they were telling the drivers to use the drag of the car to help conserve the brakes, I don't think this is a good start for designing a car :) Whilst I think that they were taking things a little far for entertainment purposes Stirling Moss commented that the stopping power of lifting your foot off of the throttle and letting the drag take over gives better stopping performance than his brakes gave him when he was racing.
High downforce (F1) = High Drag Co-efficient
On the bright side, it doesn't look bad, and if it really goes as well as it's supposed to then it's the first hybrid that I would not mind driving :)
Why do car manufacturers must make an ecologically friendly car that packs the punch of a sport's car.
Who needs to get to 100km/h in 5 seconds? Who needs to release 350 bhp to the road in a car? Who needs to reach 155mp/h.
I say make all cars smaller, lighter, less powerful. Impose a maximum power to weight ratio. This and the technology shown by BMW will have a real impact on the environment...
I don't care about concept cars, I want cars that I can actually buy (and afford). I don't need massive horse power and driving 155mph (which is legal in only a few places in Europe anyway).
It seems the new trend in hybrids and electric cars is in showing that they can be just as fast as sports cars, but they are also as expensive as sports cars. I don't want a Sinclair C5 (which is the opposite extreme), but a car with similar form factor and price to a mid-range family car and a decent range on one charge.
Diesel-electric has got to be the way to go for these hybrid powertrains, I'm surprised it's taking so long to reach the market. I also really like the idea of generating extra power while cruising to be used for a boost when accelerating. What would you call that - power-shifting?
I think the real shame is that all these hot "futuristic" powerplants come is such awful futuristic designs.
"still not letting BMW drivers out of junctions." , "I normally loathe Beemers (and the ar$eh0le$ who drive them)"
Pot? Kettle? Black? There's plenty of twunts in all makes of car. There's no need to start cutting up random people based on what car they're in, all because another car of the same make cut you up once....
As for the car, it's high time they made a performance model using hybrid tech. At least they're developing cars that will appeal to people other than the smug "ooh, look at me; I'm saving teh planet" set, and the economies of scale thus produced will mean that a normal family car with hybrid tech, with good performance at a normal price edges ever closer.
The key question to ask of any leccy tech is what's the 'carbon footprint' for for mining, building and engineering the batteries and how often are you going to need to replace the damn things? Didn't a recent study suggest a Prius is worse for the environment to build than an ordinary petrol/diesel car?
Leccy cars won't reduce our dependency on fossil fuels anyway, they'll just chagne the way in which we're dependent on them.
If BMW are using F-1 tech where's the KERS? I'd have thought that'd be one of the best systems by which to charge the batteries on the move.
@ AC 11:40 - Spot on, let's take the spotlight of these quasi-green electric motors and concentrate on soemthing far better.
You have got to be kidding.
You're calling 75mpg / 99g CO2 from a 350bhp / 155mph sportscar "crap"??
If these figures are true then they are awesome. NOTHING comes close at the moment.
The only cars currently achieving 99g CO2 are the Smart ForTwo, Ford Fiesta, VW Polo, Seat Ibiza and the Prius. That's it.
A BMW M5 (admittedly a touch faster/better/more practical, but not a mile off) struggles to get 20mpg...
In case you didn't notice: a Yaris has slightly less performance than this thing.
I really don't get the enthusiasm for hydrogen cars. Where do you think the hydrogen comes from?
None of the cars you mentioned there had airbags, ABS, aircon, satnav, trip computers, stability control and all the other luxuries / safety features that modern cars have. They all weigh quite a lot.
For once, BMW seem to have designed a car that is both quite sensible, and doesn't look catastrophically ugly. I guess that's probably why they'll never put it into production.
"Who needs to get to 100km/h in 5 seconds?"
That is a bit slow, I grant you.
"Who needs to release 350 bhp to the road in a car?"
350Bhp would be better on a bike I accept but still pretty good in a car
"Who needs to reach 155mp/h"
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm............... 155mph.....................
The most important question would be:
"given decent sports cars of any kind cost shed loads to buy, maintain and insure, who really needs 75mpg when 20 will do just as well. Bout time we saw some of that "warming" they keep promising us.
Just a thought. Most cars nowdays have computer controlled engine management right down to the rate the fuel is squirted into the engine. In my car the accelerator seems to have no analogue control over acceleration, simply slow, medium or fast. To maintain a speed of 30mph requires the same depression as to maintain a speed of 70. So how come no-one has invented a forced-hypermiling-chip-kit yet for existing cars, that won't let you slam your foot to the floor and reach those high revs quickly.
My onboard computer tells me I average 32mpg with my normal driving, if I try to hypermile I get around 52, my guess is that like using cruise control, I'd get better MPG if the car wouldn't let me treat the accelerator like a morse code button.
Come on boffins, invent my idea for all current modern cars, then we wont need to trade-in just to keep driving costs down.
looks like one of these shiny multi coloured marbles I use to dream about as a kid !
and for "I'm still not letting BMW drivers out of junctions." ...
I make a point of letting all brands of cars through at junctions, hopefully you can one day be convinced that one can't judge people by the brand of car they drive (or their color ? or what they wear ? ... go read books, educate yourself and become intelligent some day)
I do get worried about the electric trend though ... what the hell are we going to do with all these batteries ??
hydrogen is never going to be a realistic option. The power-station-to-wheel efficiency of hydrogen is around 25% - optimistically! discounting tank leakage etc. - compared to 86% for an electric vehicle. ie, a hydrogen car requires three and a half times the energy.
That extra electricity has to come from somewhere. With electric vehicles the efficiencies are such that you can generate the electricity conventionally and still save carbon. But with hydrogen the sums don't add up. Hydrogen's even less beneficial when "renewable" energy is added into the mix, as the amount we can plausibly generate is limited by land (and coastal) area, so every kWh over that is disproportionally more CO2.
(FWIW I heartily recommend everyone reads "Sustainable energy without the hot air", read it online or download the PDF for free at http://www.withouthotair.com/ . It's written by a physics professor, so it's all hard numbers - power consumption, efficiencies, how much solar power you can get from a given area, etc.)
front on it looks fantastic.... the back end could be a bit nicer.
I'd love to be able to get 2.38l/100km from my (small) car... not to mention the same power and top speed.
So this car may never make it into production, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the drive train doesn't get put into a few of the cars from their lineup